The platitudes are both true ... "Life goes on" & "Life is never again the same".
"Seven Days in August" is the ultimate "slice of life" book. I was a bit apprehensive to read this book seeing its setting & theme. It's short, as a novel. It's in 14 parts, starting Thursday, & ending Towards Night-time, Wednesday.
Sofie & Otto are a middle-aged couple, Sofie had a child, Marie with a former husband, Marie was brutally killed in a Far-right one-man terror attack (in USA it would have been called a "shooting") eight years ago in 2011 in (Norway) & Otto has a grown son, Peter... who lives in Australia, from a former wife. Sofie is chief curator at an Art Gallery, Otto is with the Govt's Human Rights department.
... the platitudes. Sofie has held up "well" - to societal standards of being functional ... but is unhealably wounded. Otto too has been greatly pained. They go on about their lives, trying to live - instead of simply being alive. They clash, though they mostly try to protect each other & not tread on each other's toes.
It is also the truth that, just because you have suffered great tragedy in life, life does not spare you small obstacles & medium disasters.
The book is about the couple ... both about both of them individually, & about their relationship. There are many characters, & though not everyone is detailed, the reading is satisfying. The book not relentlessly gloomy, but rather, holds up the melancholy, irony, burden & struggle of existing after your offspring dies. Or turns out disappointing. The book simply observes the couple, & treats them as a couple rather than victims or "survivors", which, many times, is a euphemism for victims. How do they treat themselves? & how do others around them treat them? Do they feel an obligation to "stay true" to the sorrow? Or do they feel an obligation to "become normal again" for the comfort of their acquaintances? How does ageing feel to them? This is what the book explores.
The writing is beautiful & clever. The translation is smooth & never feels stiff. The language is elegant, but not frilly. I enjoyed the descriptions of nature, even though nature was mostly wrecking havoc.
I was astonished to know that in Norway there are people who were creating such nuisance (not hte Romani, Sofie was harassed twice in the beginning) & that there are neighbourhoods which are filled with litter ... did immigrants do this? Did Norway's openness towards the needy push it towards a dirtier existence? Norway reacted to the far-right killer with "More democracy, more openness, more kindness" which evokes immense respect in me.
More than once, the author mentions "the kind of men women fall for". I think this both alludes to how men who make effort in their relationship feel bitter that some men who make no effort at all ride their own charm & charisma & receive more appreciation... & a mild sarcasm, because those men who feel this are wrong ... some women fall for charm, & then the disasters make for memorable stories, & women only feel charmed by charm, they do not appreciate it the way they appreciate & feel grateful for effort, being attracted & choosing for a life partner are two different things.